It's All In the Details

Hair is not something I think a lot about. Over the past year or so, I was going to a person who would consider himself a "stylist." He was pretty earnest in his effort to give me a hair style of my own...something that says, "This soccer dad, desk jockey has an exciting stylish side that's beyond carrying the folding chairs to and from the soccer field." His own hair is pretty long and somewhat suspended in midair. It's a cool look for him, but not really a fit for me.

What I ended up with was sort of a natural hair turbin. I had grown long enough hair to basically wrap it around my head for warmth and protection. It was gray, long and would really take flight when I'd drive my Midlife Crisis Convertible around town.

So, the time came to end the Long Hair Experiment and go back to my former look. It was time to go back to Supercuts and get the $18 special. The haircut took about 8 minutes and involved electric clippers. I left with about a quarter of the hair I had when I went in there and I was good with that.

I came back to the office and one of the guys who just moved here to work in the home office from conservative Southern California asked me where I got my hair cut. He's new to town and didn't know where to go. So, I sent him to Supercuts.

It honestly just slipped by mind to give him the extra detail about the Supercuts in Novato. I mean when I first went it caught me off guard, but now I just accept it as part of the whole experience. I mean every place has its unique character and our Novato Supercuts is no exception. So, I never thought to mention to my coworker that the guy who cuts hair over at Supercuts is a crossdresser wearing a dress.

Well, my coworker returned to the office a little shell-shocked. "I walked in and there was a guy wearing a dress and I thought this can't be where he goes, so I walked back out and looked around and that was the only Supercuts there," he sort of babbled as he described his adventure in Bay area crossdressing. He did eventually "Man-up" and sit in the chair to get his haircut.

I felt bad. Had I been thinking, all I had to do was say,  "Oh, by the way, one or both of the Asian guys in there will likely be wearing a dress. Just go with it." I would have saved my conservative coworker much angst. Who knows what he was thinking while he was in that chair. "Is it wrong to get a haircut from a guy in a dress? Where does he buy dresses for men in Novato? Is there a Men's Dress Warehouse over next to the Old Navy?" Knowing this particular coworker, he must have been at near panic level while sitting in that chair.

So, the moral of the story is that what may seem like a minor detail to one person might actually be a major issue to someone else. One man's dress may in fact become another man's anxiety attack. I must do a better job of covering the details in the future.